Many medicaments have to be injected into the body. This applies in particular to medicaments, which are deactivated or have their efficiency remarkably decreased by oral administration, e.g., protein (such as insulin, growth hormones and interferons), carbohydrates (e.g. heparin), antibodies and the majority of vaccines. Such medicaments are predominantly injected by means of syringes, medicament pens or medicament pumps.
Some medicaments have to be administered by inhaling them from so called inhalers.
WO 2009/069518 A1 discloses an inhaler, wherein the medicament to be inhaled is stored in a bag shaped medicament container.
WO 02/058765 A1 discloses a drug delivery device which can be implanted in a patient. The drug delivery device includes a reservoir for the drug with at least one discharge outlet through which the drug can be discharged. A drive member comprising a shape memory alloy is arranged in the device in a deformed configuration to act against the reservoir directly or indirectly by recovering from its deformed configuration by virtue of its elastic properties to cause the volume of the reservoir available for the drug to be reduced and to cause drug in the reservoir to be discharged from the reservoir.
DE 102 19 750 C1 discloses a medicament container for a liquid medicament, the medicament container comprising a deformable bag with an outlet and at least one deformation member consisting of a shape memory alloy and arranged to deform the deformable bag when the shape memory alloy passes from a first phase into a second phase by a phase transition, thereby changing the shape of the deformation member and squeezing a dose of the medicament through the outlet out of the bag.